Play all your cards to achieve the goal of salvation. It is the mantra with which the Cagliari Of Claudio Ranieri presents itself at the final rush of the Serie A championship. Time is running out and the rossoblù know that, beyond the results of the other direct competitors, the priority remains that of winning as many points as possible between now and the end of the championship. “We will play everything until the last second of the last match”Ranieri himself declared after the 1-1 draw against Lecce. Now, however, on the horizon there is the difficult away match at San Siro against Milanwhich Cagliari is called upon to play in the best possible way also thanks to gods important recoveriesespecially in the advanced department.
Options
“The important thing is that we scored goals. We are fine in terms of goals scored, we had to be good in the defensive phase because we conceded too much. However, having everyone gives me the opportunity to make choices, not everyone is at 100%, but I have a wide range of choices with the race underway” . Words and thoughts of Claudio Ranieri in the press conference the day before the match against Milan. Many choices to count on for the rossoblù coach: from Luvumbo to Shomurodovfrom Lapadula to captain Pavoletti. Furthermore, this quartet is also added Oristanio, eager for redemption and to regain the trust of his coach while waiting to understand what his future will be next summer. And then there’s also Petagna, eager to take off the clothes of a mysterious object. The former Monza centre-forward, after the calf injury which forced him to miss seven official matches between March and April, was back at Ranieri’s disposal against Genoa and Lecce but remaining on the bench.
Forced choices
If you look at the last month of the championship, April, the coach of Cagliarialso thanks to the absence emergency that hit the advanced department, had to make a virtue of voice out of necessity offensive phase. Specifically, Ranieri, from the match against Verona from last April 1st until the last round of the championship against Lecce (Sunday 5 May), opted for four different men in his attack. Numbers in hand, in fact, the Uzbek Shomurodovin the aforementioned period of time, was the player most called into question by the rossoblù coach with six appearances, only two less for the pair Luvumbo-Lapadula with four. Just off the podium, however, is Oristanio who has made three appearances in the last month, punctuated by the absence against Inter due to tonsillitis and by the benches against Juventus and Lecce (in between a half played against Genoa). Those who want to have a new chance, on the other hand, are exactly that Pavoletti And Petagnawhose last appearance for both dates back to the match against Napoli last February 25th.
Consistency and alternation
The only certainty for Ranieri when it comes to attackers it is the one represented by the Angolan Zito Luvumbo. “Luvumbo is still an instinctive player”, Ranieri himself recently said about him after the match against Lecce. The growth path of the number 77 is still in full evolution and yet the former Primeiro De Agosto still remains essential in the rotations of the advanced department of Cagliari. Statistics in hand, the 22-year-old talent born in Luanda, considering only the players available to Ranieri in attack, is the one who has started several times during the championship currently underway with 17 out of 27 league appearances (29, also considering the Italian Cup), six times more than his closest pursuer, which surprisingly he is Petagna with 13. If Luvumbo has represented the card of consistency in this last period, the tandem formed by Lapadula And Shomurodov instead it was one of alternation and also of contemporaneity. Between April and May, only once did Ranieri use the Uzbek and the Peruvian together from the 1st minute, in the 1-1 draw against Verona. For the rest, the balance speaks of two relays between the former Roma and the former Benevento (against Inter and Lecce, which yielded two points), two starts by Shomurodov, one of which with Lapadula on the bench (in the 2-2 against Juventus) and one with El Bambino on the pitch as a substitute (in the 3-0 defeat against Genoa), with 6 points taken home.
Towards San Siro
The challenge against Milan approaches and for Ranieri therefore the time also comes for important decisions, not only from a tactical point of view but also in terms of which players to field. In the advanced department, the Cagliari coach will be spoiled for choice. Furthermore, Ranieri and Cagliari can also exploit to their advantage an interesting statistical data that they have in common with Milan. According to the Serie A League, in fact, the rossoblù are the team that together with the rossoneri have achieved – in percentage – the highest number of their total goals from inside the penalty area (for the Sardinians the ratio is 35 goals inside the area out of 37 total, 95%; for the Lombards 64 out of 67, 96%). But how much did Cagliari’s attackers impact the total goals? Of the 37 goals scored so far by the rossoblù, 20 have been scored by players from the advanced department, for a percentage of incidence of 54%. The only real unknown, in view of the match at San Siro, will be that of supplies for the strikers. Without Gaetano out due to disqualification, with Viola in customized and with Mancosu far from the best condition (although he returned to training partially in a group yesterday, Wednesday 8 May), the most logical solution would include a more covered setup in the middle of the field (with the probable last-minute withdrawal due to injury for Makoumbou which could complicate the plans) which gives greater solidity and balance but everything is still to be decided between now and Saturday evening (11 May). Three days before the end of the Serie A season, salvation for Cagliari is within reach and Ranieri expects important responses in this sense especially from his attackers.
Fabio Loi
